


five easy steps for acquiring a sidekick

by nantes (titians)



Category: Actor RPF, Captain America (Movies), One Direction (Band), The 1975 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 01:39:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7385782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titians/pseuds/nantes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Matty Healy gets Steve Rogers' attention by putting himself in [occasionally mortal] danger and one time it <em>really</em> doesn't go as planned (or 'Matty Healy is really obtuse and doesn't know his superheroes').</p>
            </blockquote>





	five easy steps for acquiring a sidekick

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jinlinli](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinlinli/gifts).



> bless her heart but jinlinli keeps trying to convince me to write steve/bucky fic, even tho lamb keeps telling her it's not gonna happen cos no one can make me do anything. so, as a sort of offering towards never writing actual steve/bucky fic, here's the closest thing i'll ever write to steve/bucky, steve/matty healy (with not-so-subtle hints at george daniel/gemma arterton and zarry). _you're so welcome everyone._
> 
> **PS:** happy bday steve rogers!

> _“I'm not_ totally _useless; I can be used as a bad example.”_
> 
> **U N K N O W N**
> 
>  
> 
> And I'm wondering, Baby:  
>  Do you hear the phone when I call?  
>  Do you feel the thud when I fall?  
>  Do you hear the crack when I break?  
>  Did you lock the door when it shut?  
>  Did you see the knife when it cut?  
>  Do you keep your ear to the ground?
> 
> **_L O N E L Y  T O W N_ ,  B R A N D O N  F L O W E R S**
> 
>  
> 
> **( 7 1 8 ) :**  amended rules: we now have to wear superhero outfits!  
> 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A neighbour cracks open their door wide enough to glare at Matty and shout, "Keep it down, I've got kids trying to sleep in here!" Matty has to bite his tongue to stop himself from replying 'well maybe you should stop yelling then?' cos he's already had enough excitement for one day, thank you very much.

He knocks again.

 _God_ , will George please come and get the door?

When it opens, it isn't George on the other side but Gemma. She looks ruffled and is wearing a tank top that Matty knows is George's – it reveals a lot more sideboob than Gemma probably wants on show but Matty appreciates the view as he shifts his weight to prop himself against the doorframe. "Morning," he beams, aiming for nonchalant but probably hitting somewhere nearer to 'frazzled lunatic'. He hopes there isn't trash in his hair.

"C'mon in," she sighs, stepping back and letting Matty stumble through.

George is in the kitchen, already brewing tea because George is a good friend like that, eyes on the mugs in front of him as he asks, "Do you know what time it is?"

Matty huffs a noise, puffed up cheeks deflating with it. "No idea. Phone ran out of power, sorry, mate," he says, catching the flick of George's brow in response. "Sorry for waking you up."

"We weren't asleep," comes Gemma's voice from the living room. She's making up the couch for him, throwing the weird sack cloth covered pillow onto a chair since Matty always complains about how it makes his face itchy when he sleeps on it and Gemma's good at remembering things like that. (That, or she just doesn't want to listen to Matty complaining about it again, but Matty believes Gemma is a better person than that.) He watches her for a second, even spotting a flash of nipple for a brief second and then realises-

Oh.

_Oh!_

Oops.

Matty shoots a sheepish, apologetic look at George as he hands Matty the mug he likes most, and tells him, "It's been a weird evening."

George takes a mouthful of his own tea and makes a noise that Matty knows means 'go on, tell me all about it, I'm here to listen even if you did crash my dirty sex antics, please, do tell' – it's a short noise for how long its meaning is but Matty knows George's non-verbal responses better than anyone else on the planet, thank you very much.

"I passed out in a bin."

Gemma, busy moving a lamp, says, "Congratulations," then cuts herself off cursing when she trips over the cord. Matty finds it very difficult to feel sorry for her when she's being so mocking and rude.

He continues as if the interruption didn't happen, "And some bloke had to pull me out of it." He pauses, twisting the mug between his hands, not bothering to hold it with the handle at all, then states, "Not that that's very hard, since I'm _me_ , but he did it."

George's only comment is, "That was nice of him."

"Then he kept asking if I was alright and if I needed to call anyone or if he could walk me home-"

"And you came here instead," Gemma cuts in, sharper and meaner than Matty thinks he really deserves after the evening he's had. "The couch is made up, I'm going to bed," and she directs the second half of her statement at George, placing a kiss on his bare bicep to punctuate it. She walks away with a quick 'night Matthew' and George watches her go with that gooey, boyfriendy look he gets on his face whenever Gemma does something near him. _Fuck off._

Matty sighs.

"It was so _embarrassing_ , George," he says, dragging the conversation and the attention back to himself. "He saved me from a bin and was really nice about it. I fished two cigarette butts out of my hair after he'd gone."

"You put yourself in the bin."

"Not on purpose," he fights back.

George sighs in that 'fine, fine, alright, whatever you say' way he seems to have perfected after years of being Matty's best friend. He places his empty mug down by the sink and attempts an apology with the question, "Did you at least get your saviour's name?"

Matty smiles. "Steve. Yeah. He was cute, I guess. Bit overly Americana, but there was something sorta Neal Cassady about him." He ignores the dramatic way George rolls his eyes. "Not that any of it matters, since I can't ever see him again."

"Not gonna put yourself in any more bins then?"

"Fuck off," Matty whines, dragging out the vowel sounds for emphasis. Yeah, alright, Matty ruined his best friend's sex night, but George could at least be a little more sympathetic about the situation. "It's not like I was in there on purpose. I just sorta fell in."

He puts his mug down next to George's, letting his shoulders slouch afterwards.

George scratches his arm. "I'm sure Steve knew that." He pats at Matty, hand warm and heavy on Matty's shoulder. His shirt feels a bit damp against his skin – Matty vaguely remembers a carton of strawberry milk near his face at one point and he hopes it doesn't sour his shirt up. "Don't worry about it, yeah?"

"Yeah," Matty agrees, and lets George return to bed.  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
The last thing Matty remembers is telling everyone 'I'm going for a smoke, yeah?' and then he's being shoved out of the way of a large chunk of the ceiling caving in by a blonde, large man who just happens to be Steve, the guy who pulled him out of a bin two weeks ago.

The club is in shambles, bits of wall crumbling down here, a minor fire over there. Zayn's on a gurney after taking a support beam to the side, Harry next to him trying not to look overly worried as a paramedic checks out Zayn's arm. Matty looks over at Ross for a second, giving him a small wave, but quickly turning back to Steve.

_Why the fuck is Steve here?_

Matty knows there's that thing- Baader-Meinhof or whatever it's called, which basically means that as soon as you discover something exists, it keeps popping up in your life, but this is fucking ridiculous.

Steve seems to be checking Matty over. Matty lets himself do the same to Steve; he seems fine, bit of dirt smudged across his cheek – emphasising the weird shape of his cheekbone beneath it, something Matty had missed last time they met each other – and the left arm of his jacket is singed, still smoking a little bit but no longer burning.

Amid the rubble and mess of what was previously a pretty good club to go to on a Thursday night, Steve looks really good.

Matty kinda hates him for it.

"Hi, again," Matty says, and Steve goes wide eyed for a second. Like he's having trouble placing Matty's face amid _all the other faces of people he saves_. Fuck, how many people does he save? Matty's kinda insulted – he had two cigarettes in his hair and really nice jeans on last time he and Steve saw one another. And he was face down in a bin, is that something Steve deals with regularly? God, who the fuck is Steve?

Steve stammers out, "Hi, yes, hi. You're the guy from the garbage."

"Matty," he corrects.

"Steve," Steve says, like Matty's as rude as Steve and has forgotten his name. "You alright?"

"Uh, yeah," Matty trips over, shifting his gaze off of Steve's beautiful eyelashes and down his face, across the tip of his nose and to his mouth. Which is as equally distracting as Steve's eyelashes were. Matty's so embarrassed about everything right now. "I'm fine – you pushed me out of harm's way when the ceiling started to fall down."

He can't help it. He really can't. Steve says, "Glad to be of service," and smiles and Matty feels his own mouth flop open, like some ridiculous dead fish, just from watching the shapes Steve's lips make when he speaks.

"Yeah," he agrees.  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
Nick's trying to be vegan. It's very annoying. Matty knows he can be an annoying bollocks when he wants to be, but he hopes he isn't half as annoying as Nick when Nick starts rabbitting on about how great he now feels and how everyone should do it. He breaks into the chain of the conversation with, "Have you heard how Zayn is?"

Nick stops midsentence and says, "Harry says it's a fracture, but he's still fretting about it. You know how he is."

Matty nods.

Nick continues, "He also said you were there too, but you seem to be fine. Harry said he didn't get too badly hurt, but even he's got a few bumps and bruises."

Stirring his coffee, Matty nods again. The fact is, he _does_ have a few bruises on himself from Thursday, but they aren't from a ceiling falling on him. They're from Steve shoving him out of the way of the falling ceiling. They kinda look like sex bruises; Matty wishes they were.

He tells Nick, "I was just lucky."  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
All the trains on this line of the subway are running late which means Matty is running late and it's not his fault. He also has no phone signal because the train is currently stuck in a tunnel, not fucking moving anywhere, so Matty can't even text anyone to say he's running late, which is making him feel more late because his excuse about why he's running late is going to be later than he would like to send it.

He keeps scratching at the square tattoo on his forearm, red lines now running perfectly parallel to one another in the free space of his skin.

Matty hates the subway, he hates being late, and he _really_ hates not being able to tell anyone he's late.

Oh, also, his phone is dying cos Matty never remembers to charge anything, so by the time he gets out of this stupid tunnel, he'll probably have just enough power to open his phone and begin writing his message to Adam about his predicament and the bloody thing will switch itself off.

Matty hates this Wednesday way more than any other Monday he's ever experienced. He's sorry, cos he loves them, but the Bangles were fucking wrong about that shit.

He's frowning at the black, reflective screen of his phone, wondering if that forehead wrinkle is new or if it's one he's never noticed before – "Your forehead can do ab crunches," Louis had once laughed and it had taken everything in Matty's entire being not to insult his little brother's t-shirt in return for that comment – when the whole train car rocks, sending Matty's backpack sprawling across the seats. A packet of cigarettes, two lighters, and his headphones spill out.

With a sigh, he gets out of his seat to collect them up. He has his fingers wrapped around the cable of his headphones when the train shakes again, and Matty's face collides with the metal pole next to him. His vision swims.

Matty decides he's absolutely concussed when he sees Steve running towards him.

"They said the train was empty," Steve says to- someone else? There's no one else in the car. It rocks again and Steve lets Matty balance himself against him, cupping Matty's face in his hands. Matty just watches him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm late," he replies.

"You should probably get off the train," Steve says, obviously fine with his assessment of Matty. "And get above ground. It's- well. . . you'll see it on the news later, I guess."

Matty reaches for the second of his lighters, stuffing it into his bag. He has no idea what Steve is talking about.

"Sure," he says, aiming to placate.

Steve hands him his packet of cigarettes. Their fingers touch. Matty stares at his hand after Steve has taken his back. Apparently he does this for too long, because it prompts Steve to enquire again, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just bumped my head," Matty nods. "You said I should go?" and it comes out like a question.

Steve looks almost embarrassed, jerking his head on his shoulders as he says 'oh, right, yeah' then pries open the doors with very little difficulty. Matty really wants to say something, tell Steve that's really fucking impressive, wow, but he's already smacked his head into a pole and thrown all his belongings across a train car in front of him, so he thinks it's better if he just leaves. "Be careful," Steve throws at him, once Matty's out of the train. "And stick to the shadows, yeah?"

Matty gives him a wave over his shoulder to let Steve know he heard him but all but bolts from the scene.  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
Denise is fussing. 

He's already had Harry fuss over him – Harry loves a fuss, has been delightedly fussing over Zayn since a club ceiling fell on him, which is both disgustingly endearing of dear young Harold and sickeningly awful to watch, because then Zayn gets big, moony eyes over how sweet and attentive Harry is, and Matty hates the way all his friends are getting soppy over one another, please _leave him out of it_ – as did Gemma, all big sister-like and worrying over him when George had told her about Matty's experience on the train.

Now his mum is fussing. And it's nice, in the way it's always nice when Denise fusses over Matty, but the bump on Matty's head has purpled over the last couple of days, souring his mood, and his eyes feel strained and tired any time he doesn't wear his glasses. His mum is wonderful, but he'd really rather forget about the whole train situation now, thank you very much.

She coos as she smoothes a stray curl away from the bruising, and says, "When Sally told me you'd been hurt-"

Matty doesn't let Denise go any further, barging in with a huffy, "God, Gemma told _her_ mum too? Who doesn't know about this?"

"It was all over the news, love," Denise says. She's been eyeing up the scone on the pastry plate since the second pot of tea arrived and Matty motions at her to take it. "With everything else that happened, when George said you were part of it, I was expecting you to be more banged up."

Denise spreads cream on top of the layer of strawberry jam.

Matty insists, "Honestly, I'm fine. S'just a bump. Can we talk about something else?"

"Course, of course," she replies, soft and easy, and Matty gives her a smile, immediately sorry for being such a dickhead before. "We can talk about whatever you like. What's been going on with you lately?"

Matty pours himself another cup of tea and settles back into the plush cushions of the couch. Denise always picks good, comfy places for their afternoon teas together, soft seats for Matty to relax in and tell his mum everything that's happened since he last saw her. They're always nice. And he always has something to talk about. He does now too, technically – he can tell her all about meeting Steve, how he has saved his life, kinda, more than once, and how they met while Matty was face down and laughing to himself in a bin, but none of that seems very appropriate.

He takes a second to himself, and a mouthful of tea, then says, "I've met a guy."

Denise glows with the size of her smile. Matty amends, "I think. We keep bumping into each other. I keep embarrassing myself in front of him."

"Oh, Matthew," Denise breathes out. "Is he nice?"

Matty thinks about it. Yeah, he supposes Steve is nice. He's very nice; he pulled Matty out of a bin. But he still can't tell Denise that. He shrugs, careful not to spill any tea, and replies, "Yeah, he is. His name's Steve."

She repeats, "Steve," and smiles, like she already likes the sound of it. "Do you like him?"

Again, Matty shrugs. Fuck. He doesn't know. He supposes on some level, yeah, he does. On a very obvious level he does, actually, but the problem is that he keeps doing fucking stupid things in front of Steve and Matty doesn't know how to handle that. He's not a stereotypical Hollywood romcom lead, he doesn't want to have a tonne of meet-cutes to tell the grandkids forty years from now, thanks a lot. He just wants to tell Steve 'I think you'd be more attractive with a beard and maybe we can get Pad Thai some time'. He sighs.

"He's alright."  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
Ross looks like he's caught between laughing in Matty's face and bursting into tears. Neither of them sound like a great option, if Matty's honest. He keeps his face still while Ross forces out, "You can't actually be this stupid. You can't. Adam, tell me he can't be." Matty blinks. Adam stays quiet since Adam isn't a shitty friend and knows not to be so rude. "Steve. His name is fucking _Steve_ and he keeps turning up and saving you. Matty, c'mon." Ross' arms flap while he speaks. He looks like a weird, angry bird. It's funny. There's a blush across his nose, pinking up his skin with how he's exerting himself. "Steve, Matty. His name is Steve and he literally pulled you from catastrophe more than once." Matty still doesn't react. "You're fucking- I can't believe this."  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
He only went outside to let the delivery guy in for someone else, since the doorman of Matty's apartment building is the worst and never at his desk when he's needed, and now he's glued to the wall by some terrible, web-like stuff that may or may not have actually come out of the body of the spider-child-creature-monster that sped past, swinging by like Tarzan and telling Matty, "It's for your own good," as he went by.

Matty really has to pee.

The delivery guy hasn't come back out yet, so Matty's also pretty sure he let someone in to make a porn film in his apartment building, and he can't decide if he approves or not.

A voice below him calls out, "Uh, hi?"

And Matty doesn't need to look down to know it's Steve. Of course it's Steve because who the fuck else would it be? Matty's in some kind of ridiculous predicament; Steve appears. This is Matty's life now. "Hi, Steve."

"Do you need a hand?"

Matty laughs because, _great_ , jokes. His wrist is going numb and he has pins and needles up his arm and Steve is making jokes. This is so great. Matty is loving this. "If you don't mind, I'm getting a bit bored of the view down this alley, thanks."

Steve is up the fire escape and beside Matty in less than a minute. "I see you met Peter," he says.

Matty makes a noise. Peter? What a shit name for a spider-thing-boy-alien. "Must have," he states, carefully not watching the way Steve's fingers work on breaking whatever the fuck is holding Matty to the wall. Steve works mostly in silence, occasionally breaking it to mumble something to himself about tension or strength or something, Matty's not listening. He's too distracted by the way Steve's muscles move underneath his henley around his shoulders. God, Matty wants to sink his teeth into him. Which is probably the most embarrassing thing Matty has ever thought or done around Steve, being glued to a wall included, but it doesn't stop him watching how Steve moves.

Steve gives him no warning that he's nearly free, but he seems prepared for the inelegant way Matty falls into his arm after the last bit of white stuff breaks apart.

Matty ends up breathlessly pressed up against Steve's chest and he was wrong. He was so wrong. _This_ is the most embarrassing thing he's ever done in front of Steve.

He coughs and Steve lets him take a step away.

Matty scratches the back of his neck, his elbow jutting out awkwardly into the air. "So. Thanks?" he says.

"Just doing my civic duty," Steve replies. Matty lets himself laugh at it. "You're not hurt, are you? I know how hard this stuff can hit."

Matty doesn't want to know how many people Steve has freed from this stuff before him. He distracts the conversation, brushing off Steve's concern with, "D'you wanna go get some pizza?" Steve flounders. "It's the least I can do, you know? I- you- you keep helping me out and I feel I sorta owe you now."

"Sure. Pizza sounds great."

Matty relents to Steve's choice, since Steve seems to know New York better than Matty does. It's some Mom-and-Pop old style place that sneers at Matty when he makes a joke about Chicago style crust and doesn't seem to have Hawaiian on the menu, which Matty likes since pineapple on hot food is disgusting and should be illegal.

He settles for just cheese on top and eats two slices as they head towards Matty's apartment again, the direction and destination unspoken but seemingly decided between them.

"Where are you from originally?" Steve asks, as Matty hands over a slice of his pizza. He doesn't take one of Steve's in exchange, not really in the mood for pepperoni, and it feels intimate. It feels intimate and easy, the two of them walking along, chatting, getting to know one another, and Matty feels kinda exposed as he talks about back home in England, about going to school with the lads and moving over here to try and do something more than they thought they could back home.

Steve chuckles softly and says, "I know how that feels."

Matty blinks. They're outside his building. Ross is probably home now, his shift was due to end at 7pm and according to Matty's phone it's closer to 8. He could invite Steve up but that feels like a lot. He looks at the fire escape, at the marks on the wall where he had previously been trapped and offers, "Wanna sit up there?"

Steve looks from the fire escape back to Matty.

"My roommate is probably home and I don't wanna arrive in without any pizza for him."

Steve leads up the ladder after this and Matty watches his butt move. It's not huge but it's trying. Not that Matty can criticise anyone on butt size, but he does prefer a bigger butt on . . . people he's butt watching. Steve sits and Matty's show is over, but the space beside Steve is free so he slots himself in there as compensation.

They talk for a bit, nothing too deep or involved, just Steve pointing his way three blocks over and telling Matty about growing up there, and Matty pointing five blocks the other way and saying George lives that way; since Steve offered a geographical fact about himself, Matty felt it was only fair to return the favour.

"Is this weird?" he asks as Steve is helping himself to another slice of Matty's pizza. He sinks his teeth into it, looking at Matty over the crust. "I mean- I've been having a weird month, you met me on a really weird day, and now we're here."

"You telling me you don't often meet people while face down in the garbage?"

Matty gives his best sarcastic laugh in response to that.

"It's not like I _meant_ to end up in a bin that night, it just happened." He looks at Steve. Steve's face bulges out on one side around a mouthful of pizza. The sight has no right to be as endearing as it is. "You kinda keep turning up and saving me while I'm doing something embarrassing."

Steve blinks.

"That's kinda weird."

"What is?" Steve asks. He puts the crust edge down in the box. Matty can't eat anymore.

"You turning up all the time."

Steve's chest moving as he sighs is oddly hot. Matty wets his bottom lip with his tongue. He looks at Matty but Matty can't place the expression. "It's what I do," he says.

Matty nods. Steve closes over their pizza boxes. It feels very final.

"Well, thanks for getting pizza with me. I should probably go."

Steve doesn't stop him as he walks back down the fire escape and heads inside.  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
Zayn's cast-thing is due off today. Only Harry is in work, so he can't bring him to the hospital to get it off. Which means it's Matty and Zayn – since apparently Harry doesn't trust his boyfriend to get safely to the hospital and back on his own – and Zayn's newly freed arm, and Matty wants a good coffee. That's what he says:

"Zayn, I want a good coffee."

Zayn squints at him, the sun behind Matty and Zayn's sunglasses back in his apartment, and replies, "Gem might make you one if she's in work today."

She is. Cos of course she is, since Zayn only pretends not to know her monthly work schedule, but Matty doesn't comment on it. Nick is in work too, artfully arranging fruit on a pie as they enter, the bell over the door tinkling as they pass through. Gemma looks up from where she's cleaning a pipe of the old fashioned coffee machine – "Why can't we get a better one, Nicholas?" "Because this one has character, Arterton." "Suck my dick." – and smiles at them. "How's the arm feeling?" she asks.

Zayn begins to explain all about their hospital trip while Gemma busies herself making Matty's regular. He's just getting to the part about his elbow feeling like jelly when-

Steve bursts through the window.

Glass flies everywhere.

Gemma drops Matty's coffee in shock.

"Holy shit," someone says, may have even been Matty himself, he's not sure.

Steve picks himself off the floor and brushes some of the glass shards off himself. He turns to Gemma, who hasn't moved, even though Matty is pretty sure coffee is scalding a layer or two of skin off her foot, and says, "Apologies." Then he shoots a nod at Matty and jumps back out the window, running off somewhere down the street.

"Why did he have a shield?" Matty asks, once the din outside quiets down and Gemma has handed him a fresh coffee.

Somehow, the other three manage to sigh in a perfect chord.  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
Never in his life did Matty expect to actually know what it felt like to be hit by a truck. Sure, he's sometimes used it mentally as a way to describe how he feels – "It felt like I was hit by a truck." or "Hit me like a ten tonne truck." – but now that he's been hit by an actual truck, he can safely say it felt like no other moment in his life.

Technically he wasn't hit. Because that implies that Matty put himself in the line of the truck and stupidly got hit by it. No.

The truck was thrown at him.

By some alien mutant wanker who apparently decided Matty was a great target to aim for. Why, who the fuck knows, Matty has never insulted an alien or a mutant in his life (unless George counts, but Matty's pretty sure George doesn't _really_ count).

Anyway, after getting a truck thrown at him, Matty wakes up hours later in the hospital and feels like he might get sick. Or pass out again. It's somewhere between the two. He belches.

George, sitting on the chair beside Matty's bed, laughs. "Glad you're awake," he says.

It hurts to move so Matty does his best to turn his head and look at George. He looks more worried than Matty was expecting. "How- what happened?"

"Captain America saved your life. _Again_."

Matty stays quiet, confused. His head hurts and he doesn't know if it's from the truck or from George fucking with him. He feels a wave of nausea wash over him. "When did you get here?"

"After Steve called me. He said he found my name in your phone and remembered you'd mentioned me. Something about having pizza together."

Matty groans.

This is awful. Captain America saved him _and_ Steve turned up. Part of him wishes the truck had crushed him so he wouldn't have to deal with all this. George says, his tone now softer, "The others are outside. So is Steve. I'm gonna go tell them you're awake."  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
The nurse – this wonderful, beautiful woman who tells Harry to stop fussing at the exact same moment Matty is thinking about saying it to him – says they can only go in and see Matty two at a time. Since George has already been in to see him, Gemma comes in with Nick, and next Zayn and Harry come in, followed by Ross. Sometimes their talking gets too loud and Matty's head hurts, but the nurse says that the sensation will pass in a few days.

Ross eventually leaves, saying he should call Adam and John and let them know Matty is ok, and Matty waits for Steve to come in.

He comes in behind a bouquet of flowers – none of the other's brought gifts, not even fussy, soppy Harry, but that's cos Matty has terrible friends – and another bloke Matty doesn't recognise. His chest feels heavy from talking to the others before them, but he still manages to great the other two with a gentle, "Hi."

Steve moves in closer. "How are you doing?"

"Feels like I got hit by a truck," he answers, which earns him a laugh from the other guy.

"Not surprising," Steve says, and hands Matty the flowers. He explains, "These are for you."

Matty smiles at them, large white daisies and some red chrysanthemums all wrapped in paper decorated with silver stars. They're very _Steve_. Matty smiles at the flowers and then at Steve, placing his hand over Steve's on the edge rail of the bed. It hurts a fucking lot to move, but Matty pulls him up and kisses gently at Steve's cheek, lip scuffing the rise of the bone there.

Steve pulls back, drawing out the long note of a shocked groan. "Uh. . ." he begins, but doesn't go anywhere with it. "Matty, this is Bucky."

From the end of the bed, Bucky waves.  
  
  
  
+  
  
  
  
"He has a boyfriend. This whole time, he has had a boyfriend. I can't believe this."

George steals Matty's banana pudding while Ross trims leaves off the bouquet Steve left behind him. Both of them seem content enough to let Matty rant on – they're hanging around, waiting for Denise to arrive, and Matty is filling the space in the room with shocked huffs and disgruntled sighs. "I feel such a fucking moron."

Ross, moving a red flower to beside a white flower, notes, "You also missed the fact he's _Captain America_ so not knowing he has a boyfriend is the least of your worries."

"Oh, whatever," Matty scoffs. "I can't believe he has a boyfriend. I kept embarrassing myself in front of him and he was really nice about it all, and he has a fucking _boyfriend_." He glares at George, snapping, "Will you stop eating all my banana pudding. I am distraught."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
**_T H E  E N D_**


End file.
